


Who We Used to Be

by IvyCpher



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Implied Sexual Content, King Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24674272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvyCpher/pseuds/IvyCpher
Summary: While looking around in Janus' room, Roman and Remus find a box filled with things about the person they used to be, King Romulus.
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders
Comments: 18
Kudos: 123





	Who We Used to Be

Remus and Roman were in their boyfriend Janus' room and doing one of their favourite things in his room that wasn't making out with him. They were currently looking for specific items of their shared boyfriend's to hide in their own rooms so Janus would have to go looking for them.

The twins were trying to be sneaky, but they weren't good at being sneaky together. They kept laughing and asking about which items would be better to take and hide.

"I just wish I could find his hat!" Declared Roman, pulling open the closet door for the fifth time and looking around the shelves. "That's the ticket for him."

Remus, who was halfway under Janus' bed with his legs happily kicking in the air, shouted muffledly. "I know!" He pulled himself out from under the bed and sat up. There was dust all through his hair, making his whole head look grey. "When he can't find his hat he gets  _ soooo _ red!" He sneezed and a cloud of dust flew off of him. "He turns the same shade of red when you're fucking him too!"

Ignoring his brother's last statement, though correct as it may have been, Roman shook his head. "Help me look in here, would you?" Despite how neatly organized the shelves and clothes of Janus' closet were, the floor was a complete mess. "He might have changed his hiding space."

"You sure?" Remus walked over to the closet and squatted beside Roman, looking over his shoulder into the closet. "Last time you went in a closet, you didn't come out for at least five years."

Gasping, Roman shoved Remus back. "It's true but you shouldn't say it!" Then Remus began to laugh on the floor, and Roman couldn't help it, he laughed too. "A true hero isn't afraid of any closet!" Roman then crawled into the closet, "See! If you weren't scared yourself, you'd hop right in!" He said, clothes falling into his face.

"You bitch!" Remus cried, launching into the closet on all fours like an animal. He pushed Roman, who was scream laughing, into the corner of the closet. "I'm the monster who lives in the closet! Not the little queer who rents it!"

"You're a landlord? To think you'd stoop so low!" As he playfully kicked at his brother, Roman fell onto something hard. "Ow!" He hissed, patting around him until he found a metal box under a discarded Green Day t-shirt.

"What, did you find his dildo collection?"

"Remus, that is-" Roman looked at Remus. "Wait, he has a- Nevermind that, I found something!" He said, turning the box around in his hands. It was a grey lockbox, but when he tried the lid he found it was unlocked.

"Lemme see!" Lunging forward, Remus grabbed the lockbox out of Roman's hands and quickly crawled out of the closet. He sat on the floor with his back pressed up against Janus' bed, looking at the box but not opening it.

With a roll of his eyes, Roman grumbled as he too crawled out of the closet. "I was the one who found it first." He said, sitting beside his brother. They both looked at the box. "Should we open it?" He asked slowly. "Jan must've put it away for a reason…"

"Well," Remus tilted his head sideways so fast that his neck cracked loudly. "Think of it this way… What if it's hot nudes? Or even better yet," He grinned, "His own weird porn."

Scrunching up his nose in disgust, Roman shook his head. "Who has tangible porn anymore?" He gestured vaguely with one hand. "Everyone just uses the internet."

Shrugging, Remus looked back down at the box. "We should open it."

Roman looked at the box too, then over his shoulder at the closed bedroom door. "I do  _ really  _ want to open it…" He sighed. "But-"

"Then open it!" Before Roman could finish his sentence, Remus threw the box into his arms like it was a game of hot potato.

Roman's fingers ran around the edge of the box and curved around the lid. "Well… It is just a box… How bad could one little box be?"

"Pandora's box unleashed all bad things into the world! Sickness, death, demons, and all that other gucci stuff!" Counting each of those things off on his fingers, Remus grinned.

For a moment, Roman just stared at Remus in disbelief. "I really hate you sometimes." He sighed, then he opened the box.

The first thing in the box was a black flash dive.

"It's porn, I know it is!  _ Yoink!"  _ Remus said, grabbing the flash drive and biting the end of it.

But Roman didn't hear him, he was too distracted by what was under the flash drive to register his brother's obscenities. It was a thick stack of polaroids and the one on top showed a smiling Janus with who had to be a side, but Roman didn't know who he was. "Do you know who he is?" Roman asked, taking the photos out of the box and showing them to Remus.

Remus stopped his chewing on the flash drive and dropped it into his lap. "He… No, but he looks familiar." He said quietly.

The unknown man in the photo was taller than Janus and had his arm wrapped around his shoulder. It was clear from their smiles and bright eyes that they had to be in love. He had dark, unkempt hair that was swept under a silver crown; mismatched green and red eyes that were too busy looking at Janus to be pointed at the camera; and a dark Van Dyke beard.

Roman's eyes trailed away to the unknown man to Janus. His chest ached at how happy he looked and it made him jealous. He wanted to know who that man was and why Janus had never told him or Remus about him.

"Hey!" Remus spoke up, jabbing a finger at the photo. "They're in the Imagination!"

Blinking, Roman looked at the rest of the photo. He saw that Janus and the stranger were indeed in the Imagination, it was configured to be a field of sunflowers. "How can this be? You can't have the Imagination without one of us!" He turned to Remus like he might have the answer. "This is downright spooky."

"And not the good type of spooky either." Agreed Remus, taking the lock box out of Roman's lap and digging around in it.

More interested with the photos than whatever else could be inside the box, Roman moved the first photo to the back of the pile. The next photo had the same strange man in it, it was a full body shot, however, and Roman could better see what he was wearing. He had on more jewelry than just his crown, including various golden bangles on his wrists and thick rings on his fingers. Over a poofy plum shirt he had on two black sashes that crossed over his chest. Roman's fingers went to his own sash and he slowly squeezed it. On his belt there was a holster for a sword.

It took Roman a moment to notice the little blurb written under the photo, but when he did he instantly recognized it as Janus' handwriting.

_ King right before he dragged me into the Imagination for the *worst* date of my life _

  
  


And then Roman didn't know why, but he turned the photo over and saw there was more. But the words on the back were written in an unfamiliar hand.

  
  


_ We had the best night ever _

  
  


Seeing those words made Roman's mouth go dry and his stomach tangle itself into a sea of knots. King. King. King. He hated being in the dark about whoever that  _ King  _ was. It wouldn't have bothered Roman that Janus had an ex, no, what bothered him was that Janus had an ex and kept a whole box filled with photos and God-knows what else about him.

Before Roman could turn to the next photo, there was a sunflower dangling in his face. He looked over at Remus, who was holding the flower in his face, and quickly noted his discomfort. "What did you find?"

Dropping the flower back into the lock box, Remus lifted up a leather bound diary. "He was really into this guy." He offered Roman the diary but he just shook his head, the photos were enough. "And I think he still is."

Nodding, Roman looked back at the photos. He went through a few, King was in nearly all of them. Many of them had Janus and King together looking happy and just so in love. They made Roman angry. "What was on the flash drive?" He asked suddenly, tossing the photos in the box.

Shrugging, Remus grabbed it off the ground and turned it over in his hands. "Y'know, I might have been right before. It actually might be porn." He didn't elaborate, but he didn't need to. Roman knew that King was special to Janus, so special that he had a box all about him. It wouldn't be hard to guess with how much that they clearly loved each other that they would've recorded their own sex acts, as weird as that might be.

Even though the very idea sickened Roman and made him feel that he might puke, he took the flash drive from Remus and stood up. He didn't say anything as he walked to the other side of the room to where Janus' laptop was closed on his desk. He grabbed it, came back over to the bed and sat down on it.

Pushing the box from his lap so that its contents spilled onto the floor, Remus joined Roman on the bed and watched as his brother uncapped the drive and plugged it into the laptop. He didn't say anything, and Roman was thankful for that. But Roman also knew that Remus was only quiet when he was upset.

Roman opened the laptop and logged in under the guest option. When it let him in, he pulled open the files on the computer. The flash drive had a single file that was named  **_FOR JANUS_ ** . He moved his cursor over the drive file and looked over at his brother. Remus nodded and put his hand on Roman's shoulder. With a long sigh, Roman clicked the file.

The video player opened, and after it loaded a video showed up. It was paused at the very beginning, and even though the quality of the thumbnail was blurry, Roman could make out King seated alone at a desk.

"Romulus." Remus said, pointing to his screen. "That's Romulus."

"What?" Roman paused, his fingers were just above the space bar of the laptop, ready to start the video. "I thought his name was 'King'?"

Remus scrunched up his nose and shook his head, "Janus called him Romulus in his diary."

Roman didn't have anything to say to that, so instead of saying anything he started the video.

"Hello, Jan," Romulus said. He smiled sadly and waved to the camera from behind his desk, his golden bracelets jangled loudly on his wrist. "I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold this together, but…" He sighed, and took off his silver crown. He touched the three points of the crown and then looked back into the camera as he set it down. "I'm splitting as a Side.

"Thomas keeps questioning his creative ideas more and more…" Romulus shook his head and then winced, closing his eyes tightly. When he opened them again, his pupils were splitting into two like a cell under a microscope. He breathed heavily, and closed his eyes again. "Some scare him and go against what he's learned as a person," He opened his eyes and they were normal again, but he appeared exhausted at the action of fixing them. "He's breaking me like an Oreo cookie, trying to get to the filling." He laughed, but his laughter soon turned into a sob.

Romulus' crying didn't last long, he quickly pulled himself together and wiped his eyes on his wrist. His pupils had split again but he didn't fix them. "I didn't tell you sooner because I didn't want to upset you. I wanted to make you as happy as I could in the time I had left with you." He reached for his crown on the table but hesitated, "I don't know how the new Creativites will act… But I can tell you one thing, Janus," He slowly looked up at the camera and smiled, "If they came from me, they're sure as hell going to love you just as much as I do. I'll still be here in them, so… so you won't be missing out on much." He whispered, shaking his head.

Then the lights flickered in the room and the camera shifted so that it was filming Romulus at an angle. He had one hand over his heart and the other on his head, he looked to be in serious pain and was breathing heavily. "I'm sorry I couldn't have been here longer, beloved," He gasped, looking into the camera with tears in his eyes. "I love you and will always miss you."

The lights went out and then the video ended.

For a moment, the twins could only stare at the computer screen in silence. They turned to look at each other with identical looks of disbelief.

"We were a fusion!" They said together.

Roman moved the laptop off his lap and cradled his head in his hands, "I can't believe this." He sighed. "We were- A Side shouldn't be able to split!"

Remus hopped off the bed and pushed back his hair, "But we did!" He smiled and then his smile quickly went away. "And everyone knew."

Roman's face snapped up, "You're… You're right!" He stood up so fast that he felt dizzy. "No one told us! And they had to have been around to know King- to know Romulus. Not Patton, not Logan, not Virgil, not-"

"Janus." Remus finished his sentence. They both looked at each other, really looked at each other. "Why wouldn't he tell us, Roman?" He reached forward and grabbed Roman's arm. "Are-" He took in a breath, "Maybe he likes Romulus better…"

"Stop that," With a shake of his head, Roman pulled Remus in a hug and held him tightly. "No bad thoughts."

"All I am is bad thoughts!" Remus hissed, pushing Roman away. He stepped back and opened and closed his hands into fists repeatedly at his sides. "All I am is- the cookie part of the Oreo. No one wants me! Not Thomas at least. He's a cream slut and just  _ has  _ to have the filling."

"I like the cookie part of the Oreo," Roman said. "And…" He looked around. "And so does Thomas! I know he does! Because you cannot like Oreos without liking the whole cookie! And together, Remus, we make a damn good cookie!"

For a moment, Remus stared at Roman blankly, but then a grin spread across his face. "We're a snack." He laughed softly.

Unable to help it, Roman smiled too. "A  _ royal  _ snack."

Remus doubled over laughing and Roman joined in too. It was hard to not laugh when someone you loved was laughing, even if the joke was stupid and your mind was traveling at a hundred thoughts a second. Or maybe his surprised mind was why he was laughing, it was easier to laugh than to deal with the present.

"What if-" And Remus suddenly had his laughter back under control. "What if we could fuse again?" He asked, stepping back over to Roman. "We could actually be that Oreo instead of the separated pieces!"

"But what if we can't?" Roman found himself asking.

"What the fuck does it matter if we can't? A broken cookie is still a cookie, even if it's all moldy and soggy and chewed up! All that matters is if we  _ can!" _

Hesitating, Roman bit his lip. "Let's try it." He said, thinking of the photos and how he had never seen Janus look happier than he was in them.

As soon as the words left Roman's mouth, Remus grabbed his hands and pulled him close. "Some real Steven Universe shit is about to go down." He cackled, twirling Roman.

"Oh! Who said you got to lead?" Laughed Roman. He let himself be twirled then did the same thing to his brother. "How do we even know this is going to work?"

"We don't!"

Roman knew Remus was right, but that wasn't what he wanted to hear. He let go of Remus' hands and he stumbled back. "Remus-! I have an idea!"

"Is it to sew our abdomens together? Then, yes!"

Taking a moment to grimace, Roman shook his head. "No! I want you to go to the other end of the room and come out at me!" He held out his arms,  _ "Without your morning star or any other weapons!"  _ He added.

"You're no fun!" Remus rolled his eyes and stepped back as far as he could. Then, without hesitation he began to run at Roman.

Roman closed his eyes tightly and only hoped that his idea would work.

It didn't.

The next thing Roman knew, he was on the floor with the wind knocked out of him and his chest aching with Remus on top of him. "Shit." He rasped. "That didn't go right."

Shrugging from his spot on top of Roman, Remus shook his head. His eyes were crossed from the force of colliding with his brother. He smacked the side of his head with his palm and they went right in a second. "What did you think was going to happen? Reverse mitosis or were you expecting vore?"

"The first option-" Sighed Roman, bringing a hand to his head. "Can you kindly get your heavy ass off of me?"

"I'll kindly give you a mullet if you ask," Remus stuck out his tongue at Roman and then got off him. He put out his hand to help him up.

"A  _ mullet?"  _ Taking Remus' hand, Roman stood up. "What self respecting gay man has a mullet?"

"Didn't know you had self respect."

".... You didn't have to go that low." And Roman sighed. "I guess we won't be able to make him again. Might as well clean things up so Jan doesn't figure out we know."

"Wait- We're just  _ not _ going to tell him?"

Giving Remus a confused look, Roman threw up his hands. "And just  _ how  _ do you want to start  _ that _ conversation, huh? 'Hey, babe, we found your secret box of shit and figured out that you and everyone else has been lying to us about our identity!'"

"That seems good! Let's do it!"

Groaning, Roman dropped his head onto Remus' shoulder. "This is horrible." He sighed. "I wish we would have tried to annoy him in a different way like- resetting his ringtone or filling his room with autumn leaves."

"Why the fuck leaves? They don't even taste good."

"Ugh, I don't know! My ideas aren't good when I'm stressed." Picking his head off of Remus' shoulder, Roman crossed his arms over his chest. "Just… Janus looked so  _ happy  _ with him. I wonder if he gets that happy with us."

Remus looked at Roman a second before reaching out to wrap his arm around Roman's shoulders. "Well- fuck. We aren't King Fuck Boy anymore. So we don't know if we can be him- so what!? We're better! Cause out of us, who are the ones going down on Jan every other night?"

Roman snorted, "Us…" He smiled softly.

Grinning, Remus tightened his hold on Roman's shoulders and shook him slightly. "Yeah! He's our boyfriend and we treat him better than some ruffled up, small dicked King!"

With a laugh, Roman nodded. "Yeah!"

And just then, the bedroom door opened.

"I know you two are in here, so you better not have rearranged all my shit again." Spoke Janus as he walked into the room. His eyes froze on Roman and Remus and then they traveled to his open lock box on the floor with it's contents everywhere. He quickly looked back to the twins looking apprehensive. "So you know…" He said slowly.

Momentarily casting each other an unsure glance, the twins separated themselves. When the both nodded, Janus sighed and sat down on his bed.

"It's not that I didn't want to tell you, but- I didn't know how." Said Janus quietly.

Both Roman and Remus moved to sit on the other side of Janus. "It's… It's okay, Janus." Roman admitted.

Janus blinked, "Really? You're not mad?" He looked from Roman to Remus, nervously fiddling with his gloves in his lap.

Remus took one of Janus' hands and squeezed it, shrugging. "Not anymore." He slowly took off Janus' glove and ran his thumb over his bare skin. "Were you going to tell us? Or was that box going to be like Thomas all freshman year of high school and stay in the closet?"

"I'm telling you two the truth when I say I was going to tell you." With Remus holding his hand, Janus cautiously leaned against Roman. "It's not excusable for me to hide it this long from you." He looked up at Roman, "Neither of you deserve that." Then to Remus.

"That we don't," Putting his arm around Janus' waist the best he could, Roman didn't really know what he was feeling. In all honesty, he felt glad for not being able to fuse into Romulus. He looked over Janus at Remus and then down to their shared boyfriend. "Do the others know?"

There was a moment when Janus was silent, then he slowly nodded. "Yes, they've always known." He paused, but the twins didn't say anything. "We all thought it best that after the split that neither of you know right away… That it might cause certain problems."

"We tried to fuse again." Remus said suddenly. "It didn't work."

"Maybe that's a good thing," Janus said. "I don't think I'd know what to do if he came back… And… Well, I think I'd miss you two more than I've ever missed him."

Hearing that made Roman feel wonderful, but also sad. He knew he could never know what it must have felt like for Janus to love the person you love and to be suddenly stuck with two new people. He gently moved up the brim of Janus' hat and kissed the side of his head. "Do you want us to leave you for a while, Jan? So everyone can properly absorb this?"

Janus only nodded.

Roman stood up, and seeing that Remus was being a second too slow, he pulled him off the bed. Cursing in reply, Remus pushed Roman off of him once he was up, "We love ya, Jan." He leaned down to give Janus' cheek a small peck.

"Yes, we love you, Janus." Roman waved, pulling his brother away from their boyfriend again. "We're ready to talk when you are!" And then he pulled his struggling brother from the room and shut the door.

Remus rubbed his neck, glaring at Roman. "I didn't think you were into choking, because that's what you just did to me when you yanked me out of the room."

Rolling his eyes, Roman started down the hall. " _ We _ had our time to talk about King alone, we should give Janus some time to think about what he wants to say to us about it."

Reluctantly following him, Remus crossed his arms. "You're stupid when you're right."

"And you're stupid all the time, checkmate."

Then the brothers went to their separate rooms to deal with the thought of who they used to be by themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> I hate when I think up what could potentially be a very cool fic idea but then I poorly execute it.
> 
> Comments are very much appreciated!!!


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